The Youngest
by Unhobbity Hobbit
Summary: Merry and Pippin's last night. One-shot


A/N: something I felt like writing, don't ask me why. Your thoughts are still appreciated.  
  
Let's do a disclaimer just for fun: I own nothing to do with LotR, except a copy of the book and a poster and a little guide to LotR and. ok so I own quite a bit to do with LotR but I don't own the characters. (They're next on my shopping list)  
  
Merry and Pippin had travelled all the way from the Shire and through Rohan and now they had come to rest in Gondor. They both knew they had little time left and that they would never see their homeland nor their families again. They were in Minas Tirith and Aragorn was ruling well. Merry and Pippin were sitting outside in the gardens, enjoying the dying sunlight before some nurse or healer of some sort would usher them in out of the cold. They sat a talked of days gone by and days to come and most of all of the day just gone. They were pleased to see Aragorn and Arwen doing so well and news had come that Legolas and Gimli were on their way to visit the two remaining hobbits.  
  
"Won't it be good to see them again?" said Pippin, Merry grunted in answer,  
  
"I can't wait to see what the look like. Though, come to think of it, they'll probably be exactly the same. Won't they?" Another grunt answered him.  
  
"Look, if you don't want to talk you can just say so." Said Pippin, getting a little frustrated with Merry's lack of words and continuous grunting.  
  
"All right then," answered Merry, "I don't want to talk just now."  
  
"That's better, just as long as you don't fall asleep, you know what terrible trouble we get into if one of us falls asleep outside."  
  
"Isn't that why we strategically positioned ourselves behind this bush? To get away from the peeking and prying healers? They're all very well when you're ill, but when nothing can be done they just become a nuisance."  
  
"I thought you didn't want to talk, Merry." said Pippin, raising an eyebrow at his cousin, life long companion, best man, best friend, brother, helper and so many other things besides.  
  
"I don't." said Merry simply. He took Pippins hand in his and they lent back in their chairs, gazing up at the stars that were now hanging in the sky.  
  
They sat for a long time in the growing cold and Merry fell asleep despite himself. Pippin noticed but let his friend rest anyway. He could feel the exhaustion off age upon him as well. With his free hand he felt his cheek, once smooth, but now ravaged and wrinkled by time. His hair had lost a lot of its colour, though not all. But one thing people noticed about him was that his eyes were still as bright as ever. They were still full of the youthful energy and life his body had once been so full of.  
  
He shook his friend's hand to try and stir him, the healers were sure to be worrying. Pippin smiled at Merry's ability to sleep in such cold, he reached over and tapped him on the cheek. To Pippin's horror, the cheek was stone cold and he realised Merry's hand was only warm because he had been holding it. There was no mist of breath from Merry's lips and when Pippin felt his chest, there was no sign of movement.  
  
Pippin did not despair though. He smiled to himself, let the healers worry, they would find him in the morning with a smile on his face. He leaned over and whispered in his cousin's ear,  
  
"Wait for me there." And, with Merry's hand still in his, he let slumber take him. In his dreams, he ran through the fields of the Shire as he had done as a young lad of fifteen, he could see his destination clearly and that made him run all the faster.  
  
The great hill of Bag End rose proudly out of the ground and standing before it was Merry, he was waving and beckoning Pippin to run faster. Merry was not alone, beside him stood Estella and on his other side was Sam with Rosie. Next to Estella was Diamond, his own wife, the one whom he had missed so dearly. Tears were now in his eyes as he searched his friends for signs of another among them. The one he had not seen ever since he left the shores of Middle-Earth.  
  
Merry and Sam parted and from behind them stepped out the one hobbit Pippin had been dying to see.  
  
"Frodo!" he cried in anticipation. But his friends all turned away from him, he was so close to them, where were they going? The door of Bag End opened and a bright light shone out from it. All of Pippin's deceased friends passed through it and without hesitation, Pippin followed.  
  
So Merry and Pippin were found next morning, hand in hand, and a smile on both their faces. The youngest of the Fellowship. 


End file.
